Cprf

[Delenda Carthago]

Communist Party of the Russian Federation.What do we know about it?Is it revisionist a lot or maybe a hope for Russia?

[thälmann]

ok thats my opinion: they are more a cind of reformist and patriotic party, then revisionist. and they are very nostalgic...overall far away from beeing a communist party. but maybe some russian comrades here could say some more about it...

[Dimentio]

Communist Party of the Russian Federation.What do we know about it?Is it revisionist a lot or maybe a hope for Russia?

* State capitalists

* Market socialists

* Borderline antisemites

* Homophobes

* Chauvinists

* A hub for conspiracy theorists

* Ultranationalists

The nicest thing that could be said about them is that they're pretty mainstream for contemporary Russia.

[Red Commissar]

It also says a lot that considering that they are the largest opposition group in the Duma they do very little of what one would expect of an opposition party, even in the context of bourgeoisie politics.

They might change in the future but at the present it's nothing more than some guys trumping around about how good the Soviet Union was (i.e. lots of nostalgic statements) and how they were strong (overly nationalistic statements).

[Dimentio]

What could they do?

Putin's puppets control the absolute majority. The CPRF could not do anything except trying to gain attention. In the 90's, they were actually a threat against Yeltsin, though I doubt Zyuganov would have been that different from Putin.

[khad]

Their discussion forum, from the accounts I've heard, talks way more serious politics than revleft does. Even their chit-chat equivalent is more or less political.

I think the situation is that there are a lot of good rank and file, with the leadership being corrupt and opportunist.

[Dimentio]

Their discussion forum, from the accounts I've heard, talks way more serious politics than revleft does. Even their chit-chat equivalent is more or less political.

I think the situation is that there are a lot of good rank and file, with the leadership being corrupt and opportunist.

They have improved a lot since I last saw them (2006) if that's the case. During those days it was mostly nazism, "9/11 was an inside job", Russian ultranationalism and anti-western agitation.

[pranabjyoti]

Do any CPRF party member is also a member of this website? Is anyone here?

[Nolan]

Do any CPRF party member is also a member of this website? Is anyone here?

It seems to me Russians who could give us some info on this have a strange tendency to get banned from this site. Kowalski and Soviet come to mind.

[el_chavista]

They are stuck in the parliamentary struggle since 1996 when Yeltsin threatened banning the Communists and Siuganov refused mobilizing the masses to confront official opportunism in winning the elections.

[Comrade Marxist Bro]

Their discussion forum, from the accounts I've heard, talks way more serious politics than revleft does. Even their chit-chat equivalent is more or less political.

I think the situation is that there are a lot of good rank and file, with the leadership being corrupt and opportunist.

In that case, kindly permit me to dispel the last of your illusions in the CPRF:

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad251/CMB1986/7.jpg

Perhaps you are not good at reading that much Russian -- but take a good look at that avatar. To be sure, the CPRF forum probably wasn't so bad a resource for the Russian communists at some point. But that's by no means the case nowadays.

The forum actually had a different group of moderators several years ago -- that is, before the forum's 2007-2008 "reform" into what it is now. Those original moderators were, for the most part, decent fellows interested in the study of Marxism-Leninism (if merely in the confines of the Marxist-Leninist ideas as practiced by the old CPSU). Accordingly, being critical of the Zyuganov line themselves, they actually encouraged somewhat in-depth theoretical discussions and even permitted Marxist-Leninist participants to voice criticism of the mainstream party line of the dominating Zyuganovite opportunists.

Around 2007-2008, one of the nationalist careerists involved in the party's organizational work pushed through a vaguely-worded party resolution condemning the work of this divisive clique of "neo-Trotskyites" (!) on the official forum. So, in 2008, the original group of moderators was relieved of their duties and replaced by a new batch of moderators and administrators. The new bunch is a gang ultra-nationalists -- some very firmly embedded in the CPRF bureuacracy. (For, naturally, under Zyuganov's oversight the party had descended so strikingly low that even the central forum has degenerated into a moronic and reactionary circle-jerk.) The current administrator and his group of moderators are quite happy to tolerate and even encourage the fascist idiots and anti-Semites of various sorts.

Which is a logical consequence of the same "patriotic red-brown-alliance" platform that was adopted by the careerist "Communist" Zyuganov after the USSR's 1991 collapse and Yeltsin's dirty presidency. The very dispiriting fact that the bulk of the CPRF machine has long ceased being a genuinely communist organization may be traumatic for many Soviet-nostalgists -- although the truth is always worthy of acknowledgment.

Understandably, the small fraction of CPRF members still loyal to the principles maintained by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin are appalled by the state of affairs in their midst. They generally prefer to congregate elsewhere, as actual Russian communists also have access to plenty of other electronic resources.

In 2008, one of the original forum moderators, an old Communist and WWII veteran by the name of Oleg Yulianovich Los, expressed his negative sentiments about the opportunistic state of the CPRF and its open tolerance for fascists on the party's main forum. The new administrators rather memorably banned him for slandering the CPRF on May 9, 2008 -- the very day of the national Victory Day holiday in honor of the 63rd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Red Army.

Those with an aptitude for the Russian language may read about the degeneration of the CPRF forum over at http://www.kommynist.ru/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B0_%D1%80%D1%83% D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D1%81%D0%BE%D 1%86%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC%D0%B0_%D0 %BD%D0%B0%D0%B4_%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BC%D0% BE%D0%BC_%D0%9A%D0%9F%D0%A0%D0%A4. The site goes into lots more detail, and mentions a slew of the personalities involved. (It is a resource maintained by the CPRF's defectors to the RCWP-RPC, as well as a number of the few remaining stalwarts who persist in the delusion that working in the CPRF can ever bring something worthwile.)

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Gennady Zyuganov seems a sinister character to me. Combined with the politics that he espouses and has infused into his CPRF, I have little interest in him or the CPRF.

I'm not too clued up on the wave of nationalistic ideologies that have existed in post-USSR Russia, but would some elements of the CPRF be representative of what i've heard called 'National Bolshevism'?

[Dimentio]

Gennady Zyuganov seems a sinister character to me. Combined with the politics that he espouses and has infused into his CPRF, I have little interest in him or the CPRF.

I'm not too clued up on the wave of nationalistic ideologies that have existed in post-USSR Russia, but would some elements of the CPRF be representative of what i've heard called 'National Bolshevism'?

The NBP today are generally an anti-imperialist and pretty progressive party in terms of social politics, especially in relation to the political climate in Russia overally. The national bolshevik elements in the CPRF would thus be - bizarrely speaking - a part of the progressive elements of that party.

As for Zyuganov, he has been party leader since 1991. He should have resigned after the catastrophic elections of 2003. The party seems to be about the personal ambitions of a clique.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Russian comrades should consider left unity around the Russian Communist Workers Party - Revolutionary Party of Communists.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

The NBP today are generally an anti-imperialist and pretty progressive party in terms of social politics, especially in relation to the political climate in Russia overally. The national bolshevik elements in the CPRF would thus be - bizarrely speaking - a part of the progressive elements of that party.

As for Zyuganov, he has been party leader since 1991. He should have resigned after the catastrophic elections of 2003. The party seems to be about the personal ambitions of a clique.

I see, thanks. So is National Bolshevism more of a fluid current, rather than a fixed ideology?

I had visions of it as a sinister, ultra-nationalistic post-USSR current.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Russian National Bolshevism has split into a fascist current and a confused left current that dabbles with pro-Western liberals. The latter is exemplified in my Politics thread on the Russian opposition.

[Nolan]

If Zyuganov were elected on a Soviet nostalgia ticket (unlikely), he might give Russia a red flag and change the name, giving us a copy of China. That's about it. The Russian bourgeoisie aren't going anywhere anytime soon.